Deo Gratias put smiles on faces of 50 indegent students in Ilorin

A Non Governmental Organization (NGO) “Deo Gratias” has distributed mathematical sets to 50 indigent students of Okelele Secondary School Ilorin, in Ilorin, the kwara state capital.

The convener of the NGO, Margaret Innocent said the gesture was aimed at putting smiles on faces of children in need, promoting education, and supporting human welfare, all in the name of making everybody happy.

While presenting the mathematical sets to students in the premises of Okelele Secondary School, Innocent said the ultimate aim of the organization is to make for a happy childhood for the Nigerian child in order to contribute to the making of a peaceful society in Nigeria.

“What informed the gesture was just the willingness to make people happy. There is a slogan ” We can’t make everybody happy” despite this slogan, I still always have this feeling that I can try.

“I know it is impossible for human beings to please everybody but just that ability to make people happy. As much as I’m not a billionaire, a lot of times, I see people who are in need I have the feeling like someone is suffering do you have something at home that you can give. I should have something at home that I can give to that person. I think the whole idea started from there”.

Innocent explained that her love and affection for children and the needy in the society prompted her into this humanitarian work to be able to contribute her own quota towards the upkeep and welfares of these segments of people in the society.

“When I celebrate birthdays, I don’t cut cakes, I don’t call friends, all I think about is the motherless baby’s home, I spend more time with them. It has always been my practice since I was 18 years old, I believe that rather than playing around or throwing a party on my birthday day, I could go spend time at the motherless baby’s home.

She said the scope of the NGO goes beyond distribution of mathematical set saying that in her drive to support human welfare, Deo Gratias provides funds and materials for livelihood, free counselling sessions to children and youths, and provides school fees, all in a bid to develop admirable emotional intelligence in the nation’s future leaders.

Speaking about the importance and relevance of the mathematical sets to the lives of the benefitting students, Innocent was confident that it would have positive effect on the lives of many, especially the indigent students among them.

“I believe the gesture would manifest in the lives of these students because you won’t believe this, in the process of doing all this, I discovered that as little as N3,250 fee for payment to facilitate education, some within this environment could not pay.

‘For the maths set, you might look at it as meagre, how much do they sell it but you will be amazed at how far it will help each parent.

“I just flashback to my days as a student, I remember I, at some point I had to borrow maths set and I know the setback it gave me as a student, number one you are going to be rushing to return the maths set to the student you borrowed it from and two you are going to be careful with the materials and not to sharpen the pencil very low because you borrowed it with the set. Things like that gave me a degree of set back as a student. So, I have a strong belief that there are some among these students that are highly in need of maths set” she affirmed.

“In the process of moving around, I have discovered that some of us that earn some amount of money, ranging from N50,000; N60,000; N70,000, we look at it as though N3,250 won’t be difficult to pay but you would be surprised that facilities valued at N1,500 will go a long way in helping these students” she added.

Speaking during the distribution exercise on behalf of the Principal of the school, the Vice Principal Administration, Mrs Oyinloye Florence Bola thanked the NGO for extending the gesture to their students saying that the gesture was very apt timely and a step in a right direction.

“We thank the donor for extending the gesture to our students, it means a lot to the students. We appreciate it, we are very grateful. We have once enjoined this gesture from this same NGO in the past, precisely in 2017. About 30 students were considered for the gifts that year, for them to come again, extending the number to 50 students, it gladdens our hearts.

“We staff are also grateful that the NGO has even extended the gesture to our staff by giving us some biros, we really appreciate it”

“We need the support of coorporate bodies and individuals because as we gather them here, many of the students cannot afford what it takes to have good education, with this assistance I think it will go a long way if we have NGO like this coming up to help the poor ones who have brighter future, education in Nigeria will be in the right track” the VP said.

Few students among the beneficiaries, Yahaya Abdulquadir, Abdullahi Bushro and Abdulganiyu Ganiyat, who spoke were very appreciative and joyful for making their dreams of having their personal maths set realized.

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